What if Processes and Structures Fail Us?

What if processes and structures fail us? What if we cannot simply accept a failure and if we do not have the concepts to reflect upon the failure? Here we can grasp an idea of what disruptive means. To contrast this let's consider disturbances. Developing, and having available, ways in which to handle disturbances is an integral part of our daily life. Even if things go wrong, we normally look to provide options to handle problems. Many tasks and jobs can be understood as the handling or prevention of disturbances by ensuring conformance to, or development of, new processes, rules and concepts. An additional aspect here is the establishment of expectations about failure, either by defining what counts as "correct" or by directly implementing handling mechanisms.
 
In 2020, a hospital in Düsseldorf was attacked by ransomware, which tragically led to the death of a patient. The attack was widely framed as a disruptive event. Here we see a well-established narrative around the year-long ransomware epidemic - and with "disruptive" IT security situations in general:
Bad actors with unknown (but surely high) capabilities, outside of our control and inaccessible to our law ruthlessly act with outmatched aggression. This perspective allowed the hospital to attribute the disruption to external factors, thus absolving themselves of responsibility.
 
However, the attack did not come as a surprise. Also, the attack vectors were well-known. From an IT-Security perspective there was no disruption. There was simply a list of treatable disturbances.
The hospital failed at many points but mainly in one aspect:  establishing the expectation about something that was likely to happen. Appropriate measures would have been available. Proper crisis plans should have been available. Most often, when the aforementioned narrative is invoked, plenty of potential disturbances were ignored along the way.

We need to correctly assign responsibility. Not reacting to something that is likely to happen or where the damage might be high is irresponsible. We should not fall for rhetorical distractions.
A real disruption goes beyond a mere dilution of accountability.

Sebastian Rehms, Research Associate in DIPCY

           

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